100 Days gave the suspense genre a must needed boost in the nineties

Bollywood in the 90s had its fair share of horror films. Along with horror came another genre, suspense. The suspense genre has had few outings in Bollywood and either they have been super-hits or commercial debacles. Fortunately, 100 Days was the former and actually boosted the careers of everyone involved – whether they could make the best of this newfound stardom is something that I will discuss later.

100 Days Synopsis

Devi (Madhuri Dixit) has extra sensory perception and in one of her dreams, she experiences a woman being killed. Later on, she realizes that she’s seeing the death of her sister. Even as she tries to convince her uncle and friends that her sister is in danger, the sister disappears. Five years later, she falls in love with a rich businessman, Ram Kumar (Jackie Shroff), and the dreams reappear. This time, Devi decides to investigate and try to ensure that another woman doesn’t die. Little does she know that once again, the danger is at her doorstep.

The 90s was really a whacky time for Bollywood and many directors decided to give an Indian twist to stuff from the west. So, Child’s Play became Papi Gudiya and it’s said that 100 Days was inspired by The Eyes of Laura Mars. Watching the film, the only things similar seems to be the poster of both films and the base concept.

100 Days was a big budget, almost clean film and possibly Bollywood’s first modern blockbuster suspense. It introduced suspense, thrill and paranormal to a whole new Indian generation – who had yet to get their hands on Hollywood stuff.

Performances were, once again, par for the course. What also worked was the suspense factor. It was unheard of, back then, to implicate the husband of the protagonist as the antagonist, without painting him an out and out bad apple right from the start.

That wasn’t the only special thing about 100 Days. This Bollywood suspense thriller was a revelation when it came to casting too. This is one of those rare films that gave Javed Jaffrey anything other than a comedy or a dance-only role. Yes, there’s a dance sequence featuring him, but you don’t buy a Ferrari unless you want it red, right?

USP:

100 Days will be remembered for many things. Though there will be many stories related to 100 Days all along, one name that will remain etched in the mind of a Bollywood suspense film fan is Jay Kalgutkar. Kalgutkar played the role of the stalker/killer and audiences loved him in the role. Kalgutkar seemed to have what was needed to make it big as a villain in Bollywood. His unique look that promised menace and hundreds of secrets could have been a staple of pulp Bollywood. Surprisingly and unfortunately, he only did a couple more films and then disappeared from Bollywood. His IMDB profile is not a spot on how popular we thought he could be back in the day.

In a Nutshell:

100 Days is one of the Big 10 of the modern suspense successes. You can watch the film on YouTube here: